An Analysis of Theodore Roethke's 'My Papa's Waltz'

3287 WordsJan 9th, 201813 Pages

The main reason for this is the type of diction the author uses. Stanza 1 seems innocent enough, for example, where the speaker ends by referring to "waltzing." Although he refers to the dance as "not easy," it can still be that the father indulged a little and started playing with his boy. In the second stanza, the word "romped" further confirms a sense of fun, despite the mother's frowning countenance.
The third and fourth stanzas become ambiguous with the use of diction such as "battered" in Stanza 3 and "beat" in Stanza 4. A significant change in these stanzas is also that the speaker addresses his father directly, whereas the first two stanzas told the story in the third person. However, there are certain elements that clarify the intent of the subject matter, not to describe or address a father who was abusive, but rather to describe the realities of life at the time. In Stanza 3, for example, it is important to note that it was the father's knuckle was battered. In Stanza 4, he did not beat the boy himself, but rather kept time on his head with his palm. The palm that was caked by dirt could have been from a day at menial labor or falling on the way from drinking whiskey. The buckle that scraped the child's ear appears to be the result of an accidental misstep rather than intentionally harmful.
A final and somewhat conclusive clue to the intention…

poem is Theodore Roethke’s My Papa’s Waltz which looks carefully through the eyes of a young boy into the household of an abusive father. Robert Hayden’s Those Winter Sundays is a similar poem from the perspective of a young adult reflecting back on the childhood relationship with his father and the abuse his father inflicted. These poems are important because they deal with the complex issues surrounding the subject of abuse and also show the different ways which children react to it. My Papa’s Waltz…

Several early critics of Theodore Roethke’s poem, My Papa’s Waltz strongly disagreed on the poem’s tone. For example, one of the earliest essays on the poem by Ronald Janssen states the tone to be negative. He states, “Overall, of course we get a family portrait of a drunken father, angry mother and desperate child” (Janssen). Another critic who believes that Roethke’s Poem has a negative tone is John Ciardi who says, “Despite its seeming lightness, “My Papa’s Waltz” is a poem of terror… because…

waltzing was not easy.
We romped until the pans
Slid from the kitchen shelf;
My mother 's countenance
Could not unfrown itself.
The hand that held my wrist
Was battered on one knuckle;
At every step you missed
My right ear scraped a buckle.
You beat time on my head
With a palm caked hard by dirt,
Then waltzed me off to bed
Still clinging to your shirt
The poem, "My Papa 's Waltz", written by Theodore Roethke, is written in such a way that creates many debate and contestation over…

Analysis of Theodore Roethke’s “My Papa’s Waltz”
Theodore Roethke’s poem “My Papa’s Waltz” illustrates a nightly ritual between a working-class father and his young son. In the first stanza a young boy holds tightly to his father. The second stanza describes a playful roughhousing between father and son. The fourth stanza shows again the boy’s unwillingness to let go of his father. Roethke’s AB rhyming scheme and waltz-like meter set a light and joyful cadence. The music of the waltz comes through…

Analysis of My Papa's Waltz by Theodore Rothke
My Papa's Waltz is by Theodore Rothke it is about a childhood memory written later in his lifetime. Theodore Rothke's dad was an alcoholic drunk. Theodore Rothke went through a period where he was depressed and mentally unstable. Theodore Rothke was fascinated by the nature of the world; many of his poems were about this subject. Some people who read My Papa&'s Waltz come to the conclusion that it is about a drunken abusive father. However, I think…

Theodore Huebner Roethke was born in Saginaw, Michigan, the son of Otto Roethke and Helen Huebner. As a student at Saginaw's Arthur Hill High School, Roethke demonstrated early promise in a speech on the Junior Red Cross that was published in twenty-six languages. However, the death of his father from cancer in 1923 was a loss that would powerfully shape Roethke's psychic and creative lives. Roethke attitude toward his father Otto was depicted in his widely anthologized work "My Papa's Waltz" written…

In “My Papa’s Waltz,” Theodore Roethke illustrates an image of a father-son romp around the kitchen that is both harsh in its play and delicate in its memory. Roethke illustrates the poem’s images from his own childhood memories. Roethke uses simple words to create puzzling phrases that could be interpreted in different ways. The poem is ambiguous due to certain word choices that have baffling double meanings. Roethke’s poem paints an image of his childhood interactions with his father. Roethke…

Essay……………………………………………………………………………………………………2
Conclusion…………………………………………………………………………………………5
Bibliography ……………………………………………………………………………………6
Introduction:
For this paper, you will be able to encounter the various meanings, tones, structure, my personal opinion and analysis of the poem “My Papa’s Waltz” by Theodore Roethke. For more to add, you will also encounter with a brief biography of the poet Roethke which will explain why the poet wrote this poem and how much meaning it has for him.
The reason why I chose this poem…

Affection in "My Papa's Waltz"
Theodore Roethke's "My Papa's Waltz" is a gentle poem, made so by its affectionate and simple tone, its innocence, its light-heartedness, and its humor. While other readers, like John Ciardi, have found it to be a "poem of terror" (Fong 80), when one considers the original drafts, as John J. McKenna does, one sees a much less forbidding melodrama and a much more down-to-earth representation of home-life. This paper will show how Roethke's "Waltz" uses language, tone…

In “My Papa’s Waltz” by Theodore Roethke, was a great poem that can mean many different things to many different people of this world. To me I think it was just a boy who just wanted to spend time with his dad before he has to go to bed. The boy probably does not get to spend time with his dad that much. The father probably works all day and all week and this is the only time the boy gets to spend with him. Roethke use of words in this poem is amazing. The use of the words in this story can mean…